Their was never real deals I use to work their in around 2015 and it was always high pricing for stuff I found cheaper at other retailers such as Walmart for the same amount of the same product the only time we’d really give any deals was when we had 20 percent off coupons. But at the same time anything we put out that looked like was a good deal was only because we couldn’t sell it so we would slash the price drastically we even threw out a bunch of stuff that could of been donated to a goodwill or a charity but nope just throw it out so much going to waste
Lies 😂 I buy there as a middle class and Walmart generic brand is so dirt cheap...I buy all my stuff from here and I only find brand products for half the price plus my weekly coupons for $15 off $75 purchase thank u very much for support through inflation big lots!!!! 🧡
A few years back, I started noticing that prices on things like Old Spice stick deodorant and Head N Shoulders shampoo were creeping up way higher than other retailers like Walmart or Target. I was no longer seeing good deals on stuff I wanted to buy and more new stock like seasonal items. Ollies remains a true overstock retailer where you can find that favorite shampoo they stopped making two years ago.
No, is the current reality of the companies top executive remuneration system, which is almost always linked to the performance of the shares on the stock market, why should they care if the company collapses in the near future? On the contrary, it is privileged information that will allow me to short sell and make even more money!!
It’s the story of alot of places today, big lots forgot it’s place. Basically big lots was like Ollie’s, they bought overstock or stock other places didn’t want anymore and then big lots sold it at a much cheaper price. Soon as they went away from that, well things started to go south
To anyone that shopped at Big Lots in the 90s, it's obvious what happened. They stopped being Big Lots. There are tons of other closeout retailers now. Big Lots gave up the market with their efforts in "diversification."
Big Lots did right in buying and repurposing former grocery stores; the one nearest me used to be an A&P. The problem is that they cut corners on maintenance and became drearier places over time. They kept the same close-out merchandise for years, that stuff becoming even more obsolete and out-of-style every month. I could say this of Big Lots: Go to Big Lots/leave dejected! See what Wal-Mart has rejected!
When they decided to emphasize food, they went up against everybody else selling the same food, cheaper. And when they loaded up on furniture, they filled floorspace with an item most people never buy. Once every few years. Mattresses even less often. So great, they have a store full of stuff at non-competitive prices and furniture that didn't sell very often. Meanwhile chains like Ollie's stayed focused on the closeouts Big Lots no longer carried. It's no wonder Ollie's is soaring. They get it. They understand their role in the market. Big Lots doesn't understand anything.
When they started they had food nobody had like tiger paw shaped cereal with Tony the tiger as the mascot but it never made it to normal grocery stores and they were super cheap. I loved it.
To me it sounds like the guy who started the company knew what he was doing, but once they went national with multiple stores, he has to hire people with traditional business training that didn't understand what made the stores successful.
@@CassandraY More that they just kept the original name as their corporate "parent company", likely for accounting and tax reasons. Not that it did them any good in the long term, but it's a thing plenty of businesses have done after a rebranding.
It's pretty common for companies to issue checks in their legal name rather than their trade name. There's generally no reason to change your legal name as a corporation. If you want to use a new name to be known by, you just create a new trade name. The legal name is just an identifier and is only seen by insiders.
@@redwolfexr They're kind of like credit cards, except made out of paper and you can only use them once. I think they're only used now by old ladies who want to hold up the checkout line at the grocery store.
Even people in China are now not buying on Temu, and sellers there are closing down their pages. Sellers are getting pinged for not lowering prices enough, even to the point where they lose money on the sales. Temu then holds their money hostage. Also they are getting ripped off with Temu accepting returns without the knowledge of the sellers.
@@valerieneal2747I bought some shorts from them once…they were too tight on me and I didn’t like the way the fabric felt on me. I ended up giving them away.
I used to manufacture their furniture in a warehouse it was just a sweatshop with osha violations everywhere and terrible management, a lot of injuries and then it shut down when business slowed
It used to be fun shopping there but the prices are too expensive now. I’ll still go there from time to time but not that much anymore- the thrill is gone lol
Ollie's is the new Big Lots. Once they remodeled the BL near me it looked like every other big box retailer. Prices went up and the thrill of getting a good buy just stopped.
Man , if Big Lots closes then small towns will suffer the most. Esp after Kmart was forced to close. They are literally forcing customers to go miles out the way to Walmart.
Bruce Thorn was a shitty CEO and allocated capital like shit. Most of the stores are profitable - the only reason they went bankrupt was due to overexpansion. Nexus thinks they can downsize and become profitable.
Nexus is a private equity firm. They don't try to make anything profitable, not for long that is. Here's how private equity works: First they'll set up a holding company that will own their new acquisition(Big Lots in this example. I'll call it BL Holdings for now.) BL Holdings will sell the real estate, equipment, intellectual property, and anything else of significant value to Nexus and make BL Holdings start paying rent and/or licensing fees to Nexus for everything they just sold but still needs to use. Any new inventory will come from other companies Nexus owns at crazy mark-ups. They'll cut staff, supplies, and reduce every ounce of overhead they can, and some more they can't. In short, they'll wring every penny out of the holding company they can. And as soon as they holding company falls apart under its own weight, it will file bankruptcy and its biggest creditor will be Nexus. That is, of course, only if there is a nickle of value to wring out of the company to begin with.
Filing Chapter 7 on 12/20/24, closing ALL locations per today's store wide conference call, but CEO Bruce Thorn had someone else break this news. Couldn't wait just 6 more days to avoid spoiling 2,000+ employees' holiday. Bah hum bag !
I worked at big lots back in 2006 when I was in high school. Back then they were just changing the store from a “flea market” look to more of what it is today. They started focusing more on furniture. Today when I go in the same store I worked in is barely recognizable. The furniture section is far nicer and more expansive, but the rest of the place just looks like wal marts clearance rack versus what it used to be. There used to be more unique items and prices on common things were lower. I price checked shampoo and toothpaste and in both cases big lots had the items priced higher or the same as Amazon. No real benefit to shopping there looking for discounts.
It will rest entirely on management and shareholders not licking their chops and getting greedy for higher numbers in the stock reports. That’s the thing that has clogged the graveyard with store names the last 50 years.
They failed because they didn't offer anything different at any price that another retailer couldn't match while presenting the customer with stores that looked like management had been absent for a long long time. Average customer: yeah, let's go to big lots, sure it's dirty, poorly stocked, the prices are average, but....but.... Yeah I'm going to Walmart.
I remember when Odd Lots, then Big Lots came to Kalamazoo, Michigan in the middle 80's. One time I went in and they had an entire table with nothing but goalie hockey skates. And it was not unusual to see different prices on the same items. In the early 90s they became more "corporate" buying toy liquidators and KB Toys. That was when I pretty much quit shopping there. I go into our local store but never buy anything. I often leave wondering how they stay open.
As a former member of store management for Big Lots, their downfall started when they wanted to be like Wal-Mart and started severely cutting store payroll hours. The one advantage Big Lots had over the big box stores was customer service. We started having to do the same amount of work with fewer payroll hours to disperse, so customer service suffered. Once that happened, how were we any different than Wal-Mart or any other big box store where you can’t find a clerk? It was inevitable. I’ll also add when the trucks came in to be unloaded, I lost count of how many items were damaged or broken because the warehouse loaded the merchandise improperly. Of course if you pointed it out to district or regional, they swept it under the rug and you got labeled as a troublemaker. That’s just one example. A lot of things that store managers would know on the store level that needed to be addressed were dismissed. Corporate knew better than the people who actually had to interact with the customers. So arrogance of corporate also was their downfall.
I went to one that is closing and talked to the liquidation consultant and they didn't know how to run logistics. They bought and stored bulk inventory in each of their stores instead of having a regional distribution center. This meant they were paying retail rent for warehousing as anchor tenants in all of their stores. Insane. Aside from paying 2-3x to warehouse nonselling inventory the distribution was not efficient. Inventory wasn't sent where it was needed. So they lost sales and were paying crazy high rents on stale inventory.
@@samsonsoturian6013 more random stuff - absolutely. I’m not sure about the counterfeit stuff though - big lots had tons of trash for sale. I’m sure some of that trash was misleading at best.
I remember buyiǹg a great laptop bag and a couple faux leather couches that were cheap and great. I walked in one the other day and it was all garbage lower quality and higher prices than dollar general.
I remember the very first time a friend took me to Big Lots, and then how great it was. This kind of reminds of of Phar-Mor. Anyone remember them? They were great, until they weren't and then they were gone. Phar-Mor power buying gives you Phar-Mor buying power. Shout out to Lisa my long ago Phar-Mor phriend!
I worked at a cell phone company and was assigned to the Phar-Mor account. One day I had to call the owners mother after hours from home on my personal cell phone. Around midnight my idiot husband ended up hitting the 'send' button which redialed the lady and she talked to him for almost an hour 😅
@icanseeclearlynow1810 For one thing, they own ABC...whom I strongly disagree with. Secondly their output of entertainment has become crap in my mind. I don't watch cartoons and science fiction movies to have agendas thrown in my face
One of the Big Lots store that is closing was selling display shelf for $1500 ..... Honestly I don't see any good deals any longer. Most items selling at almost same price at Walmart , Target , or Dollar Stores.
My local store is also closing. All the displays are for sale but the prices are terrible. For example used garbage cans for more than the same can sells for new.
Getting RUclips mid-roll ads while listening to the RUclipsr ad-read is wild. Bro YOU control mid-roll ads… could you not put them like at the 5-6 minute given you are already reading an ad?
Big Lots got too expensive. I used to go there all the time to get spices. Only a buck and they were quality. And yes, their other food products were never worth buying. Post-pandemic though, they increased their prices to the point where it was no longer worth it. I get most of the same spices from Webstaurant now. We also have Ocean State Job Lot here in the northeast, which is much better and more of a true bargain hunter store IMO.
In recent years, their electronics and household goods were not bargains by any means and their furniture wasn't anything special, looked like furniture the previous sellers didn't want. Most of their food prices did not provide me any reason to buy the food at Big Lots when I had bigger selections at similar prices elsewhere. This used to be a good place to go for bargains but they got greedy in recent years.
Those that shopped at Big Lots in the 90s, it was well known of what happened. They stopped being Big Lots. There are tons of other closeout retailers now. Big Lots gave up the market with their efforts in "diversification was very sad.
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I remember when they opened in the 90’s. But when they started stocking their own merchandise I stopped going all the time. I did buy a television stand from them a few years ago. 🤷🏻
I quit shopping there years ago because they quit carrying craft items. I would buy other things too but that was the main draw for me. Now their prices are nothing special. Ollie's is better.
Losing $440 million causing bankruptcy? While having over 1,000 stores & coming off 2 record breaking years? This makes zero sense. There is something far more nefarious going on here. Prepare for investor class_action lawsuits.
@@althunder4269 I think their question was more in regards to how does a single 400M decision sink an otherwise healthy company. They were making money hand over fist, so where's the all debt? Why the bankruptcy when they could tough it out for a year or two and right the ship? Something isn't making sense.
@@althunder4269 Going bankrupt from buying equity in your own company? Sorry, but that is an unconvincing argument, particularly given the fact that the PE was never above 25.
They likely thought that bankruptcy protection was a cheaper way of dealing with what little debt they had rather than piling on high interest rate debt to try to grow out of it. As long as you have more debt that's due currently than cash on hand, you can declare bankruptcy, even if plenty of people would lend you the money to meet your current debt obligations.
@@stevenglowacki8576 Corporate America is a ponzi scheme. Why take on debt when you can profit and walk away? Why run a business on making a profit when you can make bank off 'infinite growth'?
Fascinating. Hine sight really is 20/20, isn't it? If they had leveraged their COVID windfall and saved every penny, they could have been very well positioned to take advantage of all the retailers closing now.
Big Lots was my late father's favorite place to drag me to for far too long of visits. Its sad watching it go down, but I hated having to go there. Now I'm living the reality of seeing almost every business I grew to love going out of business because of Walmart and Amazon.
At my local Big Lots theft was a HUGE PROBLEM, people were stealing left and right, once I was there and some young guys straight up walked out the door with Bluetooth speakers and the person at the register just said "ENJOY" as they walked out then they trash talked them after the door closed.
They went with the sears model of having no stock at the stores. Go in for a sofa. Sorry none in stock. 2 weeks or more and if you want it delivered to your house it costs extra. Great business model.
it was when they added furniture and last time I was in there most of the prices were more then walmart. It sucks because they had toys for cheap when I was a kid
Trippy as hell… I worked freelance jobs for several years up until I started my now long-term gig about a year ago. The very last one I did was a stint of a couple of months as an assembler for Big Lots product reviews. I spent hours and hours in their old headquarters (which was only relatively recently abandoned and not because they were failing, but because they moved to a new building) assembling furniture, Christmas trees, etc, all barely a year ago. The rest of the review team was so nice. Not to mention the ridiculously enormous DC bolted onto the back of it that was still VERY active. It’s insane to me that they’re closing all locations now.
On Christmas Eve , went to big lots with my list. I pulled into the parking lot bandsaws stunned to find out that they were out of business !. I was so sad!. They didnt even say “ goodbye”. So sad
In Germany supermarkets/discounters like Aldi and Netto figured this model out, they sell food at very competitive rates but also have a varying inventory of these smaller heavily discounted items. Furniture and other bulky items are available via online shop.
ALDI in the US has never got into the online shopping. Wish they would, but in the US, it's either in the store or not. "Stuff" other than food is half an aisle and only small things. Maybe an airfryer or rice cooker. Maybe once a year there will be a stack of lawn chairs near the entrance. They've been in the US for decades. Not going to look, but I think 1989. Obviously in the US, the German model doesn't work for them. I love the store and probably do 90% of my food shopping there.
One thing I haven't heard mentioned is store locations for Big Lots. I work in Columbus OH but live in Pittsburgh PA. In both cities the BL stores are located on main retail traffic routes, but situated in obscure locations that are either difficult or impossible to easily see from the roadway. You basically have to already know a BL store is there or you'll drive right past it.. The locations in both cities tend to eliminate impulse stops at BL stores. Within the 2 cities my houses are within 5 minute drives of 3 Big Lots but I never think to shop there even though drive past one almost every day.
I remember buying Kraft Macaroni And Cheese, Sponge Bob Square Pants edition at Big Lots. The quirk? The cheese sauce was a deep aqua marine. It tasted normal but was hard on the eyes.
I just moved from Pennsylvania to Tennessee a few months ago. Here there is a Big Lot's and an Ollie's Army pretty much across from each other. Personally I don't care for either store. In my opinion, Ocean State Job Lot is much better than either of those, unfortunately they are mainly located in the Northeast. Would love to see one down here.
I have a Big Lots very close to my apartment, it's closing soon. A few years ago I went to another Big Lots in another of town, it had a much wider selection of items. 80% of the floor space at my current Big Lots is used for furniture, I never buy furniture, though they had a lot of other good kitchen, bathroom, and food items I did buy. Sorry it's closing, but I live in a shopping area so I just buy these items at other places close by.
@@samsonsoturian6013 Only if the holders sell their shares after the stock rises... guess what happens then? Yeah, looks like their stock chart. Guarantee you a bunch of people cashed out when they did that big buyback though.
It's been years since Big Logs ran a successful ad campaign and they have also let their stores get run down. This led to a change in consumer sentiment. I have noticed for the past year or two that whenever I go to Big Lots there is almost no one there, while Ollie's is usually packed.
Big Lots flooded market with rapid expansion when they were doing so well, started leasing more expensive real estate and had to start placing orders to stock shelves vs just buying overstock or closeouts. They also messed up printing prices on items vs no price like Walmart and over big box stores so they could run sales and adjust price with market. Dollar General can get away with printing prices because they run sales and have better inventory trackers to gauge prices. My town’s original Big Lots was half the size as current location and my area has 5 Big Lots in and area that has one Ollie’s which is booming.
In the old days like the 1950's or 60's, if a store like Big Lots was to open up announce they were selling overstock and excess inventory at reduced prices, this would be a major event to where everybody told their neighbors and friends and they hurried downtown in a crowd big enough for the police to have to control. That's how things were like if Sears Roebuck was having a sale
I haven't been in one of their stores since the 90's. I noticed one a few towns over a couple years ago and mentioned it on fb. I was informed theres one a mile from my house. I had no idea.
We moved to the Midwest from New England, where one of our favorite stores was The Ocean State Job Lot. At the Job Lot, we could get shamelessly cheap - but (usually!) good quality - food, household goods, and even clothes. We were hoping that Big Lots would be our new Job Lot. Unfortunately, for the reasons listed in this video, Big Lots was a disappointment, selling average goods at above-average prices. The adventure of rummaging for special deals and unique finds was never there. Maybe they can reinvent themselves and go back to being an "Odd-Lot" store. There's always hope.
I actually did buy a futon frame at Big Lots. But that was just once in 20 years. If most people's attitude towards furniture was like mine, then the company wasn't moving this portion of the product mix. I presume typical sales there was for snack food and minor home items like clothes baskets. That's not sustainable to carry the rent and overhead of a major corporation.
They failed because of Walmart, inconvenient locations, higher prices, stopped being a closeout store. Ollie’s also took their original closeout concept and did it better. When my credit was worse in the low to mid 600s, I couldn’t get a their credit card to buy a Broyhill bedroom set. They’re target clientele isn’t well off. How are they going to deny them credit?
Big fan of your videos. A little disappointed in this one. Was hoping you go into the naked short selling and infiltration of the board. The board virtually bankrupted their own company on purpose in my opinion.
Great video. I went to Big Lots occasionally, but always ended up at Ollie's more. Have you thought of doing a video on Ollie's, since both stores seem similar?
The company that were helping them closing up shop came to an agreement yesterday so apparently this firm is going to buy Big Lots and keep 200 to 400 stores. It was announced yesterday
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Frankly don't carry. Love all your videos. But hey 1 has to be ok. Quality ofc the same. Just the topic is meh
I use to like Big Lots, but they have become overpriced, especially for the quality you get. Not surprised they’re going belly up.
I haven't shopped there in about 4 years. No real deals anymore.
Their was never real deals I use to work their in around 2015 and it was always high pricing for stuff I found cheaper at other retailers such as Walmart for the same amount of the same product the only time we’d really give any deals was when we had 20 percent off coupons. But at the same time anything we put out that looked like was a good deal was only because we couldn’t sell it so we would slash the price drastically we even threw out a bunch of stuff that could of been donated to a goodwill or a charity but nope just throw it out so much going to waste
Lies 😂 I buy there as a middle class and Walmart generic brand is so dirt cheap...I buy all my stuff from here and I only find brand products for half the price plus my weekly coupons for $15 off $75 purchase thank u very much for support through inflation big lots!!!! 🧡
A few years back, I started noticing that prices on things like Old Spice stick deodorant and Head N Shoulders shampoo were creeping up way higher than other retailers like Walmart or Target. I was no longer seeing good deals on stuff I wanted to buy and more new stock like seasonal items. Ollies remains a true overstock retailer where you can find that favorite shampoo they stopped making two years ago.
😅yess I love me some Ollies lol
Ollies is the best
Stock buybacks at all time highs was an insane strategy.
Big brain move
No, is the current reality of the companies top executive remuneration system, which is almost always linked to the performance of the shares on the stock market, why should they care if the company collapses in the near future? On the contrary, it is privileged information that will allow me to short sell and make even more money!!
Well Discovery did that when Bill Hwang was pumping tge stock. It's a good strategy for easy capital
Board members should be brought up on charges for violating their fiduciary responsibility.
That could be a good investment strategy, just short the companies that are buying stocks back at all time highs.
It’s the story of alot of places today, big lots forgot it’s place. Basically big lots was like Ollie’s, they bought overstock or stock other places didn’t want anymore and then big lots sold it at a much cheaper price.
Soon as they went away from that, well things started to go south
To anyone that shopped at Big Lots in the 90s, it's obvious what happened. They stopped being Big Lots. There are tons of other closeout retailers now. Big Lots gave up the market with their efforts in "diversification."
Big Lots has been reduced to a crappier, more expensive Wal-Mart.
Problem was their consolidation business become broken as companies got better at managing the supply chain
@@Jeez001 Ollie's is in that same market and thriving. There ARE still opportunities. But Big Lots was too busy doing other things.
@@LatitudeSky Ollies has a fraction of the store count so they can still depend on liquidation sources to fill the store.
Big Lots did right in buying and repurposing former grocery stores; the one nearest me used to be an A&P. The problem is that they cut corners on maintenance and became drearier places over time. They kept the same close-out merchandise for years, that stuff becoming even more obsolete and out-of-style every month. I could say this of Big Lots:
Go to Big Lots/leave dejected!
See what Wal-Mart has rejected!
When they decided to emphasize food, they went up against everybody else selling the same food, cheaper. And when they loaded up on furniture, they filled floorspace with an item most people never buy. Once every few years. Mattresses even less often. So great, they have a store full of stuff at non-competitive prices and furniture that didn't sell very often. Meanwhile chains like Ollie's stayed focused on the closeouts Big Lots no longer carried. It's no wonder Ollie's is soaring. They get it. They understand their role in the market. Big Lots doesn't understand anything.
Exactly, I shop at Ollie's because it's what Big Lots used to be.
When they started they had food nobody had like tiger paw shaped cereal with Tony the tiger as the mascot but it never made it to normal grocery stores and they were super cheap. I loved it.
We thought about getting a couch there.
Big lots thrives for Californians thank you very much 😁🧡
To me it sounds like the guy who started the company knew what he was doing, but once they went national with multiple stores, he has to hire people with traditional business training that didn't understand what made the stores successful.
Fun fact, Big Lots employees still get checks bearing the original Pic’N’Save name on them.
Goes to show you how much they cared about the actual details of the business
@@CassandraY More that they just kept the original name as their corporate "parent company", likely for accounting and tax reasons. Not that it did them any good in the long term, but it's a thing plenty of businesses have done after a rebranding.
It's pretty common for companies to issue checks in their legal name rather than their trade name. There's generally no reason to change your legal name as a corporation. If you want to use a new name to be known by, you just create a new trade name. The legal name is just an identifier and is only seen by insiders.
what are checks?
@@redwolfexr They're kind of like credit cards, except made out of paper and you can only use them once. I think they're only used now by old ladies who want to hold up the checkout line at the grocery store.
Temu's run is about to be severely hampered with the recent changes to the import laws.
It'll be even worse if they ever confirm the "Temu phone home" rumors...
I hate Temu. Never bought anything from them and never will - I've heard horror stories about the way they "do business" and they are a big NO to me.
About time!!
Even people in China are now not buying on Temu, and sellers there are closing down their pages. Sellers are getting pinged for not lowering prices enough, even to the point where they lose money on the sales. Temu then holds their money hostage. Also they are getting ripped off with Temu accepting returns without the knowledge of the sellers.
@@valerieneal2747I bought some shorts from them once…they were too tight on me and I didn’t like the way the fabric felt on me. I ended up giving them away.
I stopped shopping there a few years ago as the prices were the same or more than Walmart. The only time it was worth it was if I had a coupon.
Real Talk... They opened as a liquidation store and they are closing as a liquidation store.
I remember when they only sold stuff like products that didn't succeeded like strange breakfast cereals and it was so cheap i fed it to the deer.
I used to manufacture their furniture in a warehouse it was just a sweatshop with osha violations everywhere and terrible management, a lot of injuries and then it shut down when business slowed
Hope you
Found a better job
So you manufactured for ashley is what you're saying
@ nope lane
I purchased a sofa from there in 2020 and I also had a $100 off Furniture coupon so I think I only paid $250 or less for the sofa, it was amazing!
It used to be fun shopping there but the prices are too expensive now. I’ll still go there from time to time but not that much anymore- the thrill is gone lol
Ollie's is the new Big Lots. Once they remodeled the BL near me it looked like every other big box retailer. Prices went up and the thrill of getting a good buy just stopped.
Wonder how Ollie's succeeds where Big Lot's has failed.
Preach!
Ocean State job lot is better then Ollies
@@davidcorlissYeah because OSJL is actually organized.
Man , if Big Lots closes then small towns will suffer the most. Esp after Kmart was forced to close. They are literally forcing customers to go miles out the way to Walmart.
Big lots in my area permanently closed it's doors last month. I'm so disappointed I missed the clearance 😭
I mis my stacking coupons…got good deals on toilet paper and laundry so.
Bruce Thorn was a shitty CEO and allocated capital like shit. Most of the stores are profitable - the only reason they went bankrupt was due to overexpansion. Nexus thinks they can downsize and become profitable.
Anything can become a ponzi scheme if you you grow it fast enough
Nexus is a private equity firm. They don't try to make anything profitable, not for long that is. Here's how private equity works: First they'll set up a holding company that will own their new acquisition(Big Lots in this example. I'll call it BL Holdings for now.) BL Holdings will sell the real estate, equipment, intellectual property, and anything else of significant value to Nexus and make BL Holdings start paying rent and/or licensing fees to Nexus for everything they just sold but still needs to use. Any new inventory will come from other companies Nexus owns at crazy mark-ups. They'll cut staff, supplies, and reduce every ounce of overhead they can, and some more they can't. In short, they'll wring every penny out of the holding company they can. And as soon as they holding company falls apart under its own weight, it will file bankruptcy and its biggest creditor will be Nexus. That is, of course, only if there is a nickle of value to wring out of the company to begin with.
Filing Chapter 7 on 12/20/24, closing ALL locations per today's store wide conference call, but CEO Bruce Thorn had someone else break this news. Couldn't wait just 6 more days to avoid spoiling 2,000+ employees' holiday. Bah hum bag !
Seems smart, the sooner they know the sooner than can look for new jobs.
I used to get fantastic deals there. Last 5 years it’s gotten too expensive. Not anything like previous deals. Our local store just closed.
Their prices became more expensive than Target.
Target doesn't give coupons in store they do you just need to learn to use them i worked at target here in CA
I worked at big lots back in 2006 when I was in high school. Back then they were just changing the store from a “flea market” look to more of what it is today. They started focusing more on furniture. Today when I go in the same store I worked in is barely recognizable. The furniture section is far nicer and more expansive, but the rest of the place just looks like wal marts clearance rack versus what it used to be. There used to be more unique items and prices on common things were lower. I price checked shampoo and toothpaste and in both cases big lots had the items priced higher or the same as Amazon. No real benefit to shopping there looking for discounts.
To me as a Columbus native it seems like Big Lots can’t figure out what kind of retailer they want to be.
I hope Ollie's moves into some of their abandoned stores so we can get some genuine closeout bargains again.
It will rest entirely on management and shareholders not licking their chops and getting greedy for higher numbers in the stock reports. That’s the thing that has clogged the graveyard with store names the last 50 years.
I take no joy in watching this store fall. Most of my Christmas decorations and bedding came from Big Lots
Love the Christmas decor section! I bought my first apartment Christmas tree there
Big lots was my go to place for Halloween stuff as well as furniture
They failed because they didn't offer anything different at any price that another retailer couldn't match while presenting the customer with stores that looked like management had been absent for a long long time. Average customer: yeah, let's go to big lots, sure it's dirty, poorly stocked, the prices are average, but....but.... Yeah I'm going to Walmart.
I remember when Odd Lots, then Big Lots came to Kalamazoo, Michigan in the middle 80's. One time I went in and they had an entire table with nothing but goalie hockey skates. And it was not unusual to see different prices on the same items. In the early 90s they became more "corporate" buying toy liquidators and KB Toys. That was when I pretty much quit shopping there. I go into our local store but never buy anything. I often leave wondering how they stay open.
Big lots was great 30 years ago, now it's just overpriced junk
As a former member of store management for Big Lots, their downfall started when they wanted to be like Wal-Mart and started severely cutting store payroll hours. The one advantage Big Lots had over the big box stores was customer service. We started having to do the same amount of work with fewer payroll hours to disperse, so customer service suffered. Once that happened, how were we any different than Wal-Mart or any other big box store where you can’t find a clerk? It was inevitable.
I’ll also add when the trucks came in to be unloaded, I lost count of how many items were damaged or broken because the warehouse loaded the merchandise improperly. Of course if you pointed it out to district or regional, they swept it under the rug and you got labeled as a troublemaker. That’s just one example. A lot of things that store managers would know on the store level that needed to be addressed were dismissed. Corporate knew better than the people who actually had to interact with the customers. So arrogance of corporate also was their downfall.
It’s hard to generate sales when you can’t find a sales person to help you with big ticket items.
I went to one that is closing and talked to the liquidation consultant and they didn't know how to run logistics. They bought and stored bulk inventory in each of their stores instead of having a regional distribution center. This meant they were paying retail rent for warehousing as anchor tenants in all of their stores. Insane. Aside from paying 2-3x to warehouse nonselling inventory the distribution was not efficient. Inventory wasn't sent where it was needed. So they lost sales and were paying crazy high rents on stale inventory.
Big lots was basically a brick and mortar version of TEMU
Except less counterfeit trash, and more random stuff you don't need.
@@samsonsoturian6013 more random stuff - absolutely. I’m not sure about the counterfeit stuff though - big lots had tons of trash for sale. I’m sure some of that trash was misleading at best.
@Meatball2022 Except on Temu it's all counterfeit of some kind. There's no way to make money otherwise
I remember buyiǹg a great laptop bag and a couple faux leather couches that were cheap and great. I walked in one the other day and it was all garbage lower quality and higher prices than dollar general.
Last time I was in I got the impression that they were trying to be an even cheaper version of Walmart
I remember the very first time a friend took me to Big Lots, and then how great it was. This kind of reminds of of Phar-Mor. Anyone remember them? They were great, until they weren't and then they were gone. Phar-Mor power buying gives you Phar-Mor buying power. Shout out to Lisa my long ago Phar-Mor phriend!
I worked at a cell phone company and was assigned to the Phar-Mor account. One day I had to call the owners mother after hours from home on my personal cell phone. Around midnight my idiot husband ended up hitting the 'send' button which redialed the lady and she talked to him for almost an hour 😅
I remember phar mor!
Why did Big Lots fail? They were not able to sell enough of the tons of unwanted Disney and Star Wars and Marvel toys that the stores were stuck with.
I don't buy anything Disney anymore
@@anderander5662Why not?
@icanseeclearlynow1810 For one thing, they own ABC...whom I strongly disagree with. Secondly their output of entertainment has become crap in my mind. I don't watch cartoons and science fiction movies to have agendas thrown in my face
@@anderander5662 Are they woke?
@michaeladkins6 don't know...but definitely broke
I see you skipped over them buying out their main competitor, Pic ‘n’ Save
One of the Big Lots store that is closing was selling display shelf for $1500 ..... Honestly I don't see any good deals any longer. Most items selling at almost same price at Walmart , Target , or Dollar Stores.
My local store is also closing. All the displays are for sale but the prices are terrible. For example used garbage cans for more than the same can sells for new.
I genuinely never knew what Big Lots sold
Getting RUclips mid-roll ads while listening to the RUclipsr ad-read is wild. Bro YOU control mid-roll ads… could you not put them like at the 5-6 minute given you are already reading an ad?
Brah...you can't find a working adblocker? I haven't seen ads on RUclips for an entire decade!
@@armandolimon7465 on your phone?
@@armandolimon7465 virgin ad watcher vs chad ad blocker
Zero ads when you go premium…
@@MrMichaelkc Zero ads with adblockers. I never seen an ad on RUclips for the past decade.
Big Lots got too expensive. I used to go there all the time to get spices. Only a buck and they were quality. And yes, their other food products were never worth buying. Post-pandemic though, they increased their prices to the point where it was no longer worth it. I get most of the same spices from Webstaurant now. We also have Ocean State Job Lot here in the northeast, which is much better and more of a true bargain hunter store IMO.
In recent years, their electronics and household goods were not bargains by any means and their furniture wasn't anything special, looked like furniture the previous sellers didn't want. Most of their food prices did not provide me any reason to buy the food at Big Lots when I had bigger selections at similar prices elsewhere. This used to be a good place to go for bargains but they got greedy in recent years.
Those that shopped at Big Lots in the 90s, it was well known of what happened. They stopped being Big Lots. There are tons of other closeout retailers now. Big Lots gave up the market with their efforts in "diversification was very sad.
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I remember when they opened in the 90’s. But when they started stocking their own merchandise I stopped going all the time.
I did buy a television stand from them a few years ago. 🤷🏻
Ollies can sell big lots merchandise for liquidation.
I quit shopping there years ago because they quit carrying craft items. I would buy other things too but that was the main draw for me. Now their prices are nothing special. Ollie's is better.
RIP Big Lots. All stores are shutting down.
Sad prices have gone up! I like when they have friends and family day.
Losing $440 million causing bankruptcy? While having over 1,000 stores & coming off 2 record breaking years? This makes zero sense. There is something far more nefarious going on here. Prepare for investor class_action lawsuits.
Their $400M stock buyback when their shares were at the peak caused the bankruptcy.
@@althunder4269 I think their question was more in regards to how does a single 400M decision sink an otherwise healthy company. They were making money hand over fist, so where's the all debt? Why the bankruptcy when they could tough it out for a year or two and right the ship? Something isn't making sense.
@@althunder4269 Going bankrupt from buying equity in your own company? Sorry, but that is an unconvincing argument, particularly given the fact that the PE was never above 25.
They likely thought that bankruptcy protection was a cheaper way of dealing with what little debt they had rather than piling on high interest rate debt to try to grow out of it. As long as you have more debt that's due currently than cash on hand, you can declare bankruptcy, even if plenty of people would lend you the money to meet your current debt obligations.
@@stevenglowacki8576 Corporate America is a ponzi scheme. Why take on debt when you can profit and walk away?
Why run a business on making a profit when you can make bank off 'infinite growth'?
Fascinating. Hine sight really is 20/20, isn't it? If they had leveraged their COVID windfall and saved every penny, they could have been very well positioned to take advantage of all the retailers closing now.
I shop at Ollie's now instead of Big Lots, they are more like what Big Lots used to be.
Big Lots was my late father's favorite place to drag me to for far too long of visits. Its sad watching it go down, but I hated having to go there. Now I'm living the reality of seeing almost every business I grew to love going out of business because of Walmart and Amazon.
At my local Big Lots theft was a HUGE PROBLEM, people were stealing left and right, once I was there and some young guys straight up walked out the door with Bluetooth speakers and the person at the register just said "ENJOY" as they walked out then they trash talked them after the door closed.
They went with the sears model of having no stock at the stores. Go in for a sofa. Sorry none in stock. 2 weeks or more and if you want it delivered to your house it costs extra. Great business model.
Also maybe tell the story of Ollie's Bargain Outlet, Marden's, and Ocean State Job Lot stores.
Ours is closing. Sad because they had some nice home items when we moved 4 years ago. Different brands than the regular big box stores.
it was when they added furniture and last time I was in there most of the prices were more then walmart. It sucks because they had toys for cheap when I was a kid
Big Lots used to be reasonable, but now they think they’re pottery barn and price their stuff so high. It’s ridiculous.
Trippy as hell… I worked freelance jobs for several years up until I started my now long-term gig about a year ago. The very last one I did was a stint of a couple of months as an assembler for Big Lots product reviews. I spent hours and hours in their old headquarters (which was only relatively recently abandoned and not because they were failing, but because they moved to a new building) assembling furniture, Christmas trees, etc, all barely a year ago. The rest of the review team was so nice. Not to mention the ridiculously enormous DC bolted onto the back of it that was still VERY active. It’s insane to me that they’re closing all locations now.
02:05 ad skip
Thanks
@@rfak7696 You're welcome.
On Christmas Eve , went to big lots with my list. I pulled into the parking lot bandsaws stunned to find out that they were out of business !. I was so sad!. They didnt even say “ goodbye”. So sad
In Germany supermarkets/discounters like Aldi and Netto figured this model out, they sell food at very competitive rates but also have a varying inventory of these smaller heavily discounted items. Furniture and other bulky items are available via online shop.
ALDI in the US has never got into the online shopping. Wish they would, but in the US, it's either in the store or not. "Stuff" other than food is half an aisle and only small things. Maybe an airfryer or rice cooker. Maybe once a year there will be a stack of lawn chairs near the entrance. They've been in the US for decades. Not going to look, but I think 1989. Obviously in the US, the German model doesn't work for them. I love the store and probably do 90% of my food shopping there.
Yes, and one of the reasons it feels gross to shop at either
One thing I haven't heard mentioned is store locations for Big Lots. I work in Columbus OH but live in Pittsburgh PA. In both cities the BL stores are located on main retail traffic routes, but situated in obscure locations that are either difficult or impossible to easily see from the roadway. You basically have to already know a BL store is there or you'll drive right past it.. The locations in both cities tend to eliminate impulse stops at BL stores. Within the 2 cities my houses are within 5 minute drives of 3 Big Lots but I never think to shop there even though drive past one almost every day.
Ollie's store's have taken over a lot of the extreme value space in the market.
Interesting/informative/entertaining🤗. Ventured in there couple of times Waynesville N.C. (20) years ago🤔
Nexus has zero intention to bring this back to life. It's a scrap operation.
I remember buying Kraft Macaroni And Cheese, Sponge Bob Square Pants edition at Big Lots. The quirk? The cheese sauce was a deep aqua marine. It tasted normal but was hard on the eyes.
I just moved from Pennsylvania to Tennessee a few months ago. Here there is a Big Lot's and an Ollie's Army pretty much across from each other. Personally I don't care for either store. In my opinion, Ocean State Job Lot is much better than either of those, unfortunately they are mainly located in the Northeast. Would love to see one down here.
I have a Big Lots very close to my apartment, it's closing soon. A few years ago I went to another Big Lots in another of town, it had a much wider selection of items. 80% of the floor space at my current Big Lots is used for furniture, I never buy furniture, though they had a lot of other good kitchen, bathroom, and food items I did buy. Sorry it's closing, but I live in a shopping area so I just buy these items at other places close by.
I made a killing from Big Lots years ago. Reselling on Amazon was a lot of fun and the easiest money I’ve ever made.
Amazon has been pretty crap for the last few years. They are banning anyone that does liquidation sourcing.
@ I’ve heard this was 2018-mid 2020.
The Reagan era lifting of the ban on stock buybacks should be reversed. Profits should be reinvested, not used to manipulate the stock price.
Dude, stock buybacks are just dividends without the double taxation.
You'd think the Prophets would know that?
@@chuckwright6395 OMG! Stupid autocorrect. 🤣
@@samsonsoturian6013 Only if the holders sell their shares after the stock rises... guess what happens then? Yeah, looks like their stock chart. Guarantee you a bunch of people cashed out when they did that big buyback though.
Big lots by me was not cheaper than other stores around me. It was mostly empty most times.
It's been years since Big Logs ran a successful ad campaign and they have also let their stores get run down. This led to a change in consumer sentiment. I have noticed for the past year or two that whenever I go to Big Lots there is almost no one there, while Ollie's is usually packed.
From the moment they changed the awesome and iconic name Odd Lots, their fate was sealed.
Big Lots flooded market with rapid expansion when they were doing so well, started leasing more expensive real estate and had to start placing orders to stock shelves vs just buying overstock or closeouts. They also messed up printing prices on items vs no price like Walmart and over big box stores so they could run sales and adjust price with market. Dollar General can get away with printing prices because they run sales and have better inventory trackers to gauge prices. My town’s original Big Lots was half the size as current location and my area has 5 Big Lots in and area that has one Ollie’s which is booming.
In the old days like the 1950's or 60's, if a store like Big Lots was to open up announce they were selling overstock and excess inventory at reduced prices, this would be a major event to where everybody told their neighbors and friends and they hurried downtown in a crowd big enough for the police to have to control. That's how things were like if Sears Roebuck was having a sale
I haven't been in one of their stores since the 90's. I noticed one a few towns over a couple years ago and mentioned it on fb. I was informed theres one a mile from my house. I had no idea.
Just went in one the other day. Ridiculously high and the store been closing for a year. How sway!?
Like most stores that fail or restaurants it's most likely because prices started going up
We moved to the Midwest from New England, where one of our favorite stores was The Ocean State Job Lot. At the Job Lot, we could get shamelessly cheap - but (usually!) good quality - food, household goods, and even clothes. We were hoping that Big Lots would be our new Job Lot. Unfortunately, for the reasons listed in this video, Big Lots was a disappointment, selling average goods at above-average prices. The adventure of rummaging for special deals and unique finds was never there. Maybe they can reinvent themselves and go back to being an "Odd-Lot" store. There's always hope.
I knew this placed was screwed the moment I noticed their action figures cost more than Walmart's
In the early 2000’s I could go into Big Lots find all kinds of goodies to sell on Ebay,
What went wrong is big lots ain't cheap! And they don't offer delivery for their furniture lol
As of today, GAME OVER.
They should have kept with their original plan of selling close out
Poverty eats poverty. it's a race to the bottom with America's service based economy.
Both big lots in my city have closed one about five years ago the other one just closed in September
10:58 Double Deal! Imagine getting the discounted price on products Big Lots got discounted. Let the discount inception continue
Also Ollie's Bargain Outlet is also cutting into their sales as Ollie's is a lot bigger.
I actually did buy a futon frame at Big Lots. But that was just once in 20 years. If most people's attitude towards furniture was like mine, then the company wasn't moving this portion of the product mix. I presume typical sales there was for snack food and minor home items like clothes baskets. That's not sustainable to carry the rent and overhead of a major corporation.
Lol at one point back in the day almost all my furniture was from Big Lots. As was my towels, bedding, etc.
Feel like home goods and at home took a good portion of big lots customers.
They failed because of Walmart, inconvenient locations, higher prices, stopped being a closeout store. Ollie’s also took their original closeout concept and did it better. When my credit was worse in the low to mid 600s, I couldn’t get a their credit card to buy a Broyhill bedroom set. They’re target clientele isn’t well off. How are they going to deny them credit?
Worked there years ago, biggest asset was furniture.
There's to much competition online and people don't have money to buy a lot of stuff these days.
Big fan of your videos. A little disappointed in this one. Was hoping you go into the naked short selling and infiltration of the board. The board virtually bankrupted their own company on purpose in my opinion.
Great video. I went to Big Lots occasionally, but always ended up at Ollie's more. Have you thought of doing a video on Ollie's, since both stores seem similar?
The company that were helping them closing up shop came to an agreement yesterday so apparently this firm is going to buy Big Lots and keep 200 to 400 stores. It was announced yesterday
When they stopped being a bargin hunter paradise & tuned into a Walmart/Target *wannabe*